1. A Roman lyric poet, who flourished about the middle of the first century. Quintilian
(10.1.95) observes, " At Lyricorum idem Horatius fere solus legi dignus.... Si quemdam
adjicere velis, is erit Caesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus : sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia
viventium." Two lines only of his compositions have been preserved, one of these, a dactylic
hexameter from the second book of his Lyrics, is to be found in Priscian (x. p. 897, ed.
Putsch); the other is quoted by Diomedes (iii. p. 513, ed. Putsch.) as an example of Molossian
verse. The sixth satire of Persius is evidently addressed to this Bassus ; and the old
scholiast informs us, that he was destroyed along with his villa in